Building Safety

Gavin Robinson Excerpts

Monday 30th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

That will depend on how quickly this House can agree the passage of the Bill. Given the generous words from the Opposition Front Bench, if we introduce it in the Queen’s Speech, then I hope it will be law as quickly as possible. One thing we all recognise is that when a system of property ownership has grown up over centuries, unpicking it all requires delicate work, but that work has been done by the Law Commission and others. I hope that our friends in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, who are the unsung heroes and heroines of legislation, will hear the determined chorus of unity across the House asking for the legislation to be developed as quickly as possible.

[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his ongoing commitment on these issues. He may be aware that in my constituency there is the ARC—the Abercorn residential complex—a building complex with 474 individual leaseholders. They know that their building has non-ACM cladding that needs to be remediated and that the Northern Ireland Executive received money through Barnett funds in March 2020, but the Northern Ireland Department for Communities has yet to develop a scheme that can advance those essential remediation works. There has been a request to Whitehall, so will he engage with my colleagues and me to ensure that the Northern Ireland Executive are given the support they need to deliver the remediation?

[Michael Gove]

Absolutely. I will ask Sue Gray, the second permanent secretary of my Department, to be in touch with the Northern Ireland Executive this week to do just that.